[APP][Pro] NetScan (Version 2.0.6, Test Version 2.0.8)

I have been in touch with the original author (Terry Hendrix) of an old app call NetScan and have been given permission to update it to SDK 3 and republish it.

I am awaiting the transfer of the app by Athom and then it will need to be approved but in the mean time it is available in the Homey Community Store:

And it is also now in the Athom store:

Note: To publish the app I had to change the app ID, so the new version will not update any existing version 1 or older installations. This was due to technical reasons, as the original app had been deleted by Athom because it was still using SDK1 which is no longer supported.

Description
The app is very lightweight and simply pings an IP address or IP and Port on a regular basis. If there is a response it sets the device as online but if the request times out then it sets the device off-line.

Using the app
When you add a device you can choose the method of either just specifying the IP Address or the IP and a TCP port.

During pairing, you provide the friendly device name of your choice and the IP address (plus port if you have selected that type) of the device.

In the Advanced settings of the device you can change the interval between polling and the time it waits before deciding itā€™s offline.

Version Log

1.0.1

  • Fixed crash in tcp driver

1.0.2

  • Changing the port number no longer requires a restart of the app to take effect.
  • The online and offline flow cards where reversed for the TCP device.

2.0.0

  • Published in the Athom app store with a new app ID.
  • Changed the online capability to offline with a type of alarm to conform with guidelines.

2.0.1

  • Added ā€˜Device State Changedā€™ flow triggers.

2.0.2

  • Rewritten scan code to (hopefully) reduce memory usage.

2.0.3

  • Added Log viewer to Configure App page

2.0.4 (Net Scan | Homey)

  • Fix Send Log feature.
  • Fixed issue where polling could stop on a successful connection.

2.0.5

  • Changed to use error.code instead of error.errno ready for new Homey firmware.

2.0.6

  • Added a settings to specify the number of checks that timeout before a device goes offline.

2.0.6

  • Fix issue with the number of checks being ignored for a timeoutā€¦

2.0.7

  • Fix issue with the number of checks being ignored for a timeout.

2.0.8

  • Fixed ā€˜Invertā€™ option on ā€˜Is OnLineā€™ condition card. Deprecated ā€˜Is Offlineā€™ condition card.
14 Likes

What is the difference between this app and what [APP] Smart Presence does?

Smart Presence is mainly targeted at presence detection via a smart phone and is much more feature rich. This app is a simple ping aimed at determining if a network device is available.
I believe this app was the predecessor and initial root of Smart Presence, also initially created by Terry Hendrix.
The original app was never updated by Terry from SDK1 so will no longer work on SDK3 and I have heard from a few users that they are missing the app after updating Homey to version 5 or later.

So if you just want to see if your PC or XBox is switched on then this app is smaller and easier to setup.

4 Likes

When it gets accepted by Athom i will make sure to test it out. I have the Community store version now but that does not work correctly with my setup. I cannot give you a log now however, as far as iā€™m aware

Love this, Adrian, thanx!
I just installed it, but somethingā€™s not ok
(Homey v6.1.0)


Marantz has a fixed IP, so does my router.
Same errors after restarting the app.
Disabling/enabling the app has the same effect.
A diagnostic report option is unavailable.
Maybe this is of any help.

Is it one specific device that is causing this or both?

I get the same message all of a sudden, the app has suddenly stopped. it happend for me when i was adding a new device. Nothing special.

The error message i now get is ā€œApp not foundā€

IP only works fine, 3 devices (receiver, router an NAS).
Adding a port ping device, causes the app to crash.
I removed everything, then added one port ping device (NAS port 80).
It causes the app to crash.

So, from what I see,
IP ping = ok
Port ping = crash

1 Like

OK, found the issue and updated the app. Thanks for the information.

1 Like

It works fine up til now, i made a phone ping flowset with on & offline status messages.
Laptop LAN & WiFi connection monitoringworks perfect. So I can have a reminder to turn it off (I hate it when things turn themselves off hehe).

I will update the app, Adrian! Thanks for the quick fix!

1 Like

Yup, TCP 80 scan added and allā€™s fine. :+1:

1 Like

I have found the tile dim / highlight feature to be unreliable in as much as it doesnā€™t always update when the tile is on view. Support say that is because the ā€˜uiQuickActionā€™ option that makes that happen is not meant for read-only capabilities.
To work around the issue I am thinking of changing the capability to an alarm so that the tile gets a yellow dot to indicate an alarm condition. However, to make that look right I would need to change it to a ā€œDevice Offlineā€ status. Therefore, the dot will appear when a device goes offline and the capability will show:
image
and
image

I can keep the flow card actions the same so none of the flows will need to be changed and I can automatically migrate to the new capability on existing devices.

Anyone have any thoughts for or against this?

3 Likes

Sounds like a good plan, Adrian.
Btw fyi, after reading the new update notification, I just discovered the app had crashed. I donā€™t know for how long this has been.
Yesterday evening it still worked, after I added 22 IP and a few TCP devices.
Now running the latest version.
I will make a crash notification flow, that may come in handy.

This sounds so silly. Is it so much work to enable it for r/w capabilities while writing codeā€¦ the strange world of Athom sometimes :crazy_face::hugs:

Hi Adrian,

Would you be able to give any specific guidance or documentation on updating these SDK1 to the latest? As I use an app Heatmiser which is an Athom app which hasnā€™t been updated and Iā€™m looking to update.

Thanks in advance

The way I did this one was to create a new app and then copied the essential workings to it from the old app into the relevant new places.

Apart from that it depends on how the old app is written. As my first app was SDK2 I donā€™t know how they might vary.

Great cheers, Iā€™ll take a look, did it take very long?

As this is a simple app it only took a few hours to get the bulk of it done. But then I spent a lot more time tweaking and improving it, adding new features, etc.

3 Likes

@Adrian_Rockall thanks for all your hard work

1 Like

I have had a reply from Athom and they canā€™t transfer the App ID over to me due to technical reasons as it has been deleted but is still registered.
Terry has been involved and, again, as the app has been deleted it is not in his account to transfer.

So to publish it in the Athom store I have to change it and submit it as a new app.
The disadvantage is any existing installations wonā€™t upgrade to the new app and that means devices and flows will have to be re-created.
Iā€™m really sorry for the inconvenience but it is out of my control.

3 Likes

What a bummer, but this stuff can happen.
No problemo for me to start overšŸ™ƒ.
FYI, the app didnā€™t crash again, since I reported one the other day. But the ram & cpu graphs arenā€™t what you want to see. Iā€™m not complaining, but I just want to inform you about what is going on.
In the graphs you see the app from the moment I installed it, the crash (90MB), and the app restart I did last night.

So to be clear, it didnā€™t crash, but I had to restart the app due to the excessive ram usage
I hope this is of any use!